The Story of Zumárraga
by Hresvelgr
Summary: The fate of Spira lies in the hands of an outsider from a distant city: No, not Zanarkand, Tijuana. Diego has no clue what he's supposed to do, and worse, he's never played FFX.


Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X. If I did I wouldn't be writing fan fiction, now would I?

**Chapter One: Fate Wears Blue**

The heavy rains pounded the streets and sidewalks with a relentless fury that hadn't been seen all year. The arid city of Tijuana, Mexico was suffering the latest of a series of strange thunderstorms that had been striking all winter long, each getting worse and worse. Today, despite the fact that it was 5:00 PM the sun was completely obscured by near-black clouds that loomed all over the city. It certainly wasn't a day for going out, but nevertheless a lanky, seventeen-year-old with a shock of coarse, auburn hair that stood out from his head in all directions, waited patiently at the door of his friend's house. He wore dark, loose jeans and a black jacket. The kid checked his watch again. His patience evaporated within a second. He knocked on the door several more times. "Hey! It's Diego, open up! It's cold out here!" He wiped a lock of soaked hair out of his eyes. "Come on, please! I'm meeelting… noooo!"

At long last another teen opened the door and Diego flew inside like a bat from a storm, or more rather, like a drenched kid from a storm. His friend hurriedly closed the door and jumped back when Diego began shaking his hair dry. Jack Jensen, a kid with blond hair, feared for his gel and forced Diego to the entertainment room. "Didn't I tell you that Final Fantasy X is the greatest game ever? Oh, you gotta play it, dude, it's way cool, man."

Diego, almost laughed Jack's overuse of slang. "Yeah, yeah, you only tell me every day. And I always remind you that I ain't got a PS2. And take a chill pill, watch some TV. Video games are way too addictive."

"But what if The Ring Lady comes to kill me? Or the TV possesses my soul? Grandma said…"

"Grandma said this, grandma said that," Diego Zumárraga said, mocking his friend, "You gotta let go of those superstitions. The only things you should worry about are your future, and witches. Y'know? Skinwalkers? Damned creepy, they are. Oh, and don't forget Wendigos and ghosts, but aside from all that there's nothing to fear. Well, there's also the girl from The Ring."

"I already said that-"

"Shush! Forget I said anything, now what did you want to show me?"

"Uh… you called me. Hey! I know, want to play FFX? Seriously, it's about this-"

"Shush!" Diego hushed him loudly enough to startle Jack's parents in the other room. "Don't spoil it, man, that's like, way rude," Diego said while waving his arms about quite madly. "As a great man named Mario once said, 'Let's a-play!'"

Jack, upon hearing Diego's answer, immediately dived toward his PS2 and flipped it on, but a loud thunderclap sounded and the room plunged into darkness. "Damnit," he grumbled. He turned the Playstation on again, only to have it turn right off. "Wow, how about this weather, Jack? Cold, isn't it?" Diego tried keeping his worries away. Jack gave him a tired glare. "Oh, Americans and their cold, bleak weather…" He grumbled once again. For the third time, he hesitantly turned on the PS2. Expecting it to turn off, both he and Jack jumped back to the wall when a gruff voice said, "Damnit, I ain't turning on, numbskulls!"

Jack screamed, "Oh, dear God! The TV is alive!"

However, Diego exclaimed, "¡Ave María purísima! The TV is an American!"

To their horror the TV turned on suddenly and showed a screen of static. The two teens' shivering and quaking was quite audible, and they screamed when a hand came out the screen. Knees shaking, voice quavering, Jack said, "Diego, no matter what I've ever done to you, or what we've been through, you were always my best friend."

Diego, in Jack's style, confessed, "I'm the one who planted the whiskey and got you grounded!"

"Hey…" Jack glared at him, but then the whole figure emerged from the TV. "You're not the creepy zombie-girl…" Indeed, it was no zombie-girl-thing. It was a boy wearing the oddest blue clothing Diego had seen and a hood obscuring his eyes. The room had darkened even more and the nearby thunder claps had dissipated into a distant echo. Diego gasped when he saw that Jack had vanished and anger replaced fear.

"What the Hell did you do to him!" The 'ghost-boy' merely smirked. "Tell me before I smack you upside the head, boy, I ain't above beating you silly!"

The boy just calmly uttered, "It begins. You have destiny to fulfill."

Diego moved forward towards him but found that his legs were frozen in place, and his arms rapidly grew numb and heavy. He tried with all his strength to move any part of himself but found that it was impossible. "What… are you doing to me?" The ghost-boy faded. "What are you doing!?" Diego grunted as his stomach felt weightless as if gravity was going away but he still couldn't move, he just felt a heavy, painful pull towards the TV. "Don't go away, kid, answer me!" To his surprise and relief, the boy appeared once more and the feeling of being paralyzed went away.

The boy chided him for his hostility. "You have important things to do, a destiny to fulfill. The world of Spira needs you. You have to save it from Sin."

"Save it from sin? What do I look like, a preacher? I ain't going of so save some random world that doesn't even exist from their own little fake squabbles and nonexistent sinning and whatnot, and there's nothing you can do to make me!"

The boy frowned. "I thought you'd say that. I have planted a keg of whiskey and several kilos of cocaine in your bedroom. The police are already at your house and your mother has told them your whereabouts. They will be here in… thirty seconds." The police sirens echoed closer and closer.

Diego scoffed at him. "Nice try. But I still ain't going." The boy held up a can of Coke. Cherry Coke, no less. "Hey! That's mine!" The boy threw it into a newly formed portal in the wall. "No!" Diego leaped after it and into the portal. He froze in the zone between the wall and another dimension and yelled as everything faded to darkness and he completely blacked out.

In the dull blackness there was nothing but the sound of a weak waterfall and dripping stalactites. The water had a certain rhythmic beat to it, soon he could tell what pattern the drops would come. _Drip…one, two, drip… one two, drip, drip, drip… one, drip…one, two…_The pattern was unceasing, interrupted only by the splashing waterfall. Eventually he was conscious enough to realize the drips were hitting his face. Groggily, the teen got up and viewed his surroundings. He was in a cave, that was for sure, but Diego saw that that the place appeared to be a temple or some other kind of ruins. And he had no idea where his friend had gone. Had he been sent here too? Stretching his legs and arms, Diego hopped up and immediately set about exploring the cave and looking for Jack. No matter how much he yelled there was no answer. It was colder than Tijuana for sure, but he was used to worse weather in the New Mexico desert and he had a jacket on.

Soon he found that the only stairway was blocked by rubble, there were no real doors at all, and the cave was underwater, that being the most pressing of his concerns. Diego shuddered at the prospect of the ceiling collapsing. And now the cold was finally starting to get to him. Searching his pockets, he found nothing but a now useless cell phone, five ticket stubs for the movies (his friends had to pay for food, suckers!), and the Cherry Coke. Going through inter-dimensional portals can do a number on your stomach, so Diego immediately quenched his thirst by drinking the entire can within seconds. And now, realizing he'd never find Jack or a way out, he waited, hugging himself for warmth and listening to the _drip, drip, scuttle…_ He suddenly realized that he didn't hear the scuttling before.

A monstrous, insectoid beast landed in front of Diego, snarling and waving its antennae and claw-hands. "Holy shit! This is how I die?" The insect snapped at him. _Don't think like that, don't! _Diego raised his fists. "Come on, now, get your ass-whooping right here, right now!" The monster swung a claw at him and Diego rolled to the side. "My second-cousin killed countless of your cockroach buddies, now you get your turn!" Diego punched hard into its face but the monster was unfazed. "Wow, you can take a punch. But maybe not a…" Diego threw his phone at the creature, but even the phone didn't hurt it much. The smashed bits were strewn about the floor. "I'm screwed-"

**¡BOOM!**


End file.
